


O Night Divine

by mostlypoptarts



Category: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra | Phantom of the Opera & Related Fandoms
Genre: Christine sings and Erik Can't Handle It, Christmas, Christmas Eve, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Modern AU, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:27:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21938191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mostlypoptarts/pseuds/mostlypoptarts
Summary: Christine asks Erik to attend Midnight Mass with her, to be her accompanist after Communion. Although Erik has heard her sing a million times before, nothing can prepare him for this.
Relationships: Christine Daaé/Erik | Phantom of the Opera
Comments: 2
Kudos: 36





	O Night Divine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Summerb4jc](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Summerb4jc).



Erik has never considered himself to be a religious man. Perhaps God exists, perhaps He does not, but he will never claim to know the answer. The demon he is- the demon his mother called him- keeps him too far from the idea of a benevolent, all-knowing being out there to entertain God the way Christine does. He doesn’t believe in much but the cruelty of man, and God too if He should exist, unlike Christine who commits to her religion with almost childlike faith. Christine’s Sunday morning routine features morning mass without fail, while Erik typically takes the time alone to compose or make breakfast for the two of them. This year however, Christine asked him to attend Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve with those pleading eyes he can hardly say no to, asked him to be her accompanist as she sings following Communion. He can’t say no to her and she knows that, plays it up when she needs things- and Erik wouldn’t have it any other way. So of course he said yes, now sitting in a pew next to his wife although he refuses to go near the front.

He only started to celebrate Christmas at Christine’s request, years ago when they had just begun dating. The holiday doesn’t exactly bring forth good memories of celebrating with family or getting presents from his mother though Christine seems hell-bent on changing that. As a child, Christmas was just any other day with no presents or food or heaven forbid affection from his mother. It isn’t so bad now, as Christine spoils him with the presents he never got as a child and holds him and sings such beautiful Christmas carols that he has never heard sound so sweet. It is enough to make him enjoy the holiday (although he will never admit it), though celebrating it in church is somewhat more uncomfortable than sitting by the fire and exchanging gifts with his wife.

Mass passes by in a blur, to him at least, as he thinks of melodies he’d like to write when he gets home, of how Christine will enjoy what he’s picked out for her. Her presents sit neatly wrapped below the tree she so lovingly decorated the week before, with tinsel and lights and far too much glitter. Erik loves to look at it, with the ornaments she made in grade school and the crystal ones she said belonged to her great-grandmother. He has nothing to bring to their tree expect the presents beneath it, and the height that Christine needs to put the star on the top of it.

Christine brings him up to the choir loft once she takes communion, and amidst the stares of the choir members Erik steadies himself at the piano while Christine takes up her spot at the microphone. The commotion in the pews below them settles and dies down, and slowly the rest of the world melts away as Erik begins to play. He’s practiced with Christine many times before, in the cramped little music room in their apartment, the one she always joked will get turned into a nursery someday. He has heard her sing a million times before, and each time takes his breath away as though it is the first.

_Oh holy night… The stars are brightly shining..._

She has a beautiful soprano- anyone who’s ever heard her sing knows it, and Erik feels it, reverberating from the walls of their apartment and deep, deep in his chest where his heart beats in time with her vibrato. Erik knows it’s powerful, that her voice is a force to be reckoned with, and somehow he still isn’t prepared for it in this setting. The acoustics are too much, Christine’s voice echoing around the solemn space like there are more of her, a hundred of her singing inside his heart.

Erik has never considered himself to be a religious man, but Christine sings to fall on your knees, and by God he almost does. He hears the angel voice, singing in his ears and in his heart and in every fiber of his being. It is a command, that voice, that he would never dare to disobey, not when Christine tells him to with such power and beauty and… holiness. It sends a chill down his spine and he knows if God is real- if by some chance that cruel and beautiful being is really out there and still cursed him to a life such as this- that He lives in Christine, and sings through her with the power of every angel and saint in Heaven. It is the most beautiful sound he has ever heard, the most wonderful Christmas gift he could receive.

He comes down off that high eventually, though not before Christine has finished singing, what a night divine indeed. They return back to their pew, though his world is still spinning even as he sits down.

Christine leans over to him, her fingers curling softly around his arm. “How did I do?” She asks. What a silly question, as if Erik could ever do the answer justice with mere words.

“Wonderful, my Christine,” he replies, his whisper barely above a breath.


End file.
